Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Questions for candidates/Question 5
What are your thoughts about systemic bias on Wikimedia projects, both in their content and their demographics, and including identity-based, language-based, economic/resource-based, ideological/worldview-based, and other forms of system bias? What measures or initiatives do you think the Board can appropriately take to address systemic bias?
Bobby Shabangu (Bobbyshabangu)
No response yet.
Deon Steyn (Oesjaar)
No response yet.
Erik Hanberg (Erikemery)
No response yet.
Farah Jack Mustaklem (Fjmustak)
No response yet.
Christel Steigenberger (Kritzolina)
No response yet.
Lane Rasberry (Bluerasberry)
The most important bias is financial bias, but currently the Wikimedia community has no way of reviewing Wikimedia Foundation systemic bias in our investments. We have fundraised and spent US$1,000,000,000 in the past few years, and will spend another billion dollars soon, but the Wikimedia community does not have the documentation it wants to be able to understand and discuss this spending. Part of our challenge in addressing systemic bias is that we do not have budget estimates of Wikimedia Foundation investments based on identity, language, economic status, worldview, and other biases that we identify as strategically important. An even bigger problem is that there is a taboo on asking about budgets, which is why we do not have this information already.
I do not believe that we can address bias without being aware of our financial investments, and I want to make Wikimedia Foundation budgets more accessible to the Wikimedia community, to journalists, and to university researchers. We need independent third-party research to survey and report our spending. We need to know spending by country, and spending by demographic.
Lorenzo Losa (Laurentius)
No response yet.
Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz (Nadzik)
No response yet.
Mohammed Awal Alhassan (Alhassan Mohammed Awal)
No response yet.
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (Rosiestep)
No response yet.
Tesleemah Abdulkareem (Tesleemah)
No response yet.
Victoria Doronina (Victoria)
No response yet.